The Unveiling of a Book Entitled "Fereydoun Ave: half a century"
The unveiling of a book entitled "Fereydoun Ave: half a century" took place at Farhang Bookstore located in Fereshteh Street in Tehran yesterday evening, Wednesday, April 6, 1401, with Fereydoun Ave, Ehsan Lajevardi, Behzad Nejad Ghanbar and Ali Dehbashi in attendance. In honor of him at the British Museum, the book has been published in collaboration with the Lajevardi Foundation.
Parts of the book were read in this meeting, and the theme and way the book came about were discussed. "Fereydoun Ave: half a century" is the outcome of two years of persistent efforts. This book comprises the works of 5 decades of Fereydoun Ave activities including collages, flowers and still-life, photographs, miniatures, and many other works by him. Following the artist's wishes, there is no preface or narrator in the book, so close friends who have been with him throughout his fifty years of artistic activity including Goli Taraghi, Dariush Shayegan, Shahla Hosseini, Sharouz Nazari, Leila Moghtader have provided short texts for his works.
There was only one original idea, or so-called artist's own, a "backbone", of the book, and the rest became apparent during its creation and compilation. It has always been the artist's belief that the book should be like a life, which an audience can easily relate to.
Ehsan Lajevardi referred to other books about the artist at the meeting. He believes that all previous books have greatly contributed to the improvement of "Fereydoun Ave: half a century". "Fereydoun Ave: half a century" is the fourth book to be published about the works of this artist after "Fereydoun Ave: Designer", "Fereydoun Ain't No Angel" and "Oh! What a beauty". The "artists' emergency fund" created by Fereydoun Ave and its many contributions to artists was also mentioned by Lajevardi. Behzad Nejad Ghanbar stressed the spirit of cooperation, gathering, and community building typified Fereydoun Ave and attributed the activity of many contemporary artists to 13 Vanak Gallery which this artist opened.
Fereydoun is an Iranian and Zoroastrian artist who has been regarded as a most effective figure in Iranian contemporary art. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied art of the theater from Arizona State University. He also holds a degree in film from New York University Film School. Over the past fifty years, he has worked as an artist, designer, art director, collector, gallery owner, and art sponsor. The artist has had more than 100 solo and group exhibitions throughout the world that are preserved in private collections and numerous museums including the MET in New York, the British Museum in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the LACMA, the Cy Twombly Foundation in New York, the TMoCA in Tehran and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
